Telecom Review Asia Pacific - Telecom Network News

Nokia is working with Japan’s NTT DOCOMO to test applications using a 5G base station and the Intel® 5G Mobile Trial Platform end-user device. This demonstrates the potential of Nokia 5G FIRST to deliver enhanced broadband at vastly greater scale. A showcase at the 5G Tokyo Bay Summit 2017 will signal the start of 5G trials in the Tokyo area.

Nokia and China Unicom are conducting a live trial in China Unicom's commercial network using the Nokia Virtualized Services Router (VSR). The trial involves more than 5,000 residential subscribers and allows China Unicom to simplify and accelerate the delivery of residential broadband using a new, agile and flexible network which is based on virtualized network functions (VNFs).

DoCoMo Pacific announced the start of the marine lay for its ATISA submarine fiber-optic cable system. On May 11th, DoCoMo Pacific hosted a landing ceremony for ATISA at Aquarius Beach, Saipan. Members of DoCoMo Pacific’s leadership team were joined by island dignitaries and business leaders for the event.

Telkomsel recently announced Indonesia’s first FDD Massive MIMO demonstration in collaboration with Huawei. The demonstration achieved five times capacity of traditional FDD LTE 2x2 MIMO. As Massive MIMO is one of the key technologies of 5G, this successful demonstration realizes 5G-like experience in 4.5G network, and also marks 4.5G evolution, the beginning of 5G journey for Telkomsel 2017.

Nokia and leading Japanese operator KDDI have conducted a country-first trial simulating future 5G network demands, providing high-speed, one gigabit-per-second connectivity inside an apartment block using Nokia radio technology on the 28GHz band.

Bharti Airtel, India’s largest telecommunications services provider, said that it doubled its mobile network deployment over the past two years in line with its objective of building a future ready network to lead India’s data growth story.

Voice communications in New Zealand is in for a massive upgrade with Spark New Zealand, the country’s main telecom operator, announcing it is switching from the ageing Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to a next generation IP-based network.

AARNet, Google, Indosat Ooredoo, Singtel, SubPartners, and Telstra announced they have entered into an agreement with Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) to build a new international subsea cable system that will connect Singapore, Indonesia and Australia.

Korea Telecom (KT) Chairman Hwang Chang-gyu announced that it succeeded in a 5G field test on an airport railway which connects Seoul city center and Incheon to show a successful 5G pilot service in 2018.

Singapore telecom operators Singtel and StarHub have acquired the majority of spectrum that was auctioned in Singapore of three frequency bands, which generated SDG1.15 billion ($822 million). The auction was held by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) which auctioned off 175MHz of spectrum in the 700MHz, 900MHz and 2.5GHz bands. Winners will be able to use their new spectrum on July 1.